6 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 

ON  THE 

LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

OF 

JUDGE  Jeter  Conley  Pritchard 


FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  ASHEVILLE,  N.  C, 
TUESDAY,  APRIL  12.  1921 

BY  JAMES  J.  BRITT 


Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2014 

https://archive.org/details/memorialaddressoOObrit 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 


Judge  Jeter  Conley  Pritchard 


FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  ASHEVILLE,  N.  C, 
TUESDAY,  APRIL  12,  1921 


BY  JAMES  J.  BRITT 


The  death  of  the  loved  and  loving 
friend  so  lately  fallen  on  sleep  is  to  me  a 
loss  so  keenly  personal  that  I  should  not 
trust  my  emotions,  were  it  not  tkat  I 
speak  at  the  command  of  his  own  lips, 
now  forever  closed  in  death. 

We  are  sometimes  overwhelmed  by 
the  mysterious  operations  of  the  laws  of 
our  own  being.  We  stand  like  dumt) 
beasts  and  unknowing  children.  We  can 
not  fathm  of  the  mystery  why  there  are 
so  many  different  orders  of  men.  Think- 
ing bases,  we  can  not  comprehend  why 
some  men  are  so  far  above  others  in  the 
scale  of  being.    Children  of  the  same 


ON  THE 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


OF 


Father,  nourished  by  the  same  earth- 
mother,  living  under  the  same  kindly 
heavens,  our  statures  ought  not  to  be 
so  unequal  Yet,  like  the  myriad  stars, 
we  differ  one  from  another.  Some 
come  and  .go  and  leave  no  trace  of 
their  hurried  stay  Others  among  us,  a 
unit  stronger  and  a  trifle  wiser,  Hnger 
for  a  while,  only  to  go  and  be  forgot- 
ten, too.  But  some  there  are  that  move 
so  powerfully  among  their  fellows,  that 
play  so  large  a  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
world,  that,  though  dead,  they  yet  abide 
through  the  generations.  Such  was  it 
destined  to  be  of  him  of  whom  I  speak 
today. 

Jeter  Conley  Pritchard  was  strik- 
ingly typical  of  the  finest  possibilities  of 
American  institutions.  He  was  a  flower 
of  that  free  government  that  has  made  it 
possible  for  so  many  men,  though  born 
in  huts  of  lowHness,  to  live  in  palaces 
and  reign  in  seats  of  power.  It  was  un- 
der these  favors  of  divine  Providence 
that  there  went  from  the  tailor's  bench 
the  Johnsons,  from  the  tow-path,  the 
Garfields,  and  from  the  woodsman's  for- 
est, the  Lincolns  to  the  Presidential  chair, 
there  to  occupy  the  highest  seat  of  power 
yet  vouchsafed  to  man  on  earth.  It  is 
these  beneficent  institutions  that  have 
put  hope  into  the  souls  of  so  many  striv- 
ing American  boys ;  that  have  rendered  it 
possible  for  so  many  of  the  humble  of 

Page  Two 


today  to  be  the  exalted  of  tomorrow ;  that 
have  taken  the  tatters  of  poverty  and  the 
emblems  of  ignorance  from  millions  of 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  America  and 
placed  them  upon  the  highway  of  great- 
ness; that  have  lifted  them  above  the 
chilly  surroundings  of  ill  fortune;  that 
have  put  a  new  song  in  their  mouths,  in- 
spired new  hope  in  their  souls,  and  ulti- 
mately brought  them  to  a  full  realization 
of  the  highest  achievements  of  which  our 
civilization  is  possible.  Few  men  in 
American  life  have  better  illustrated 
these  glorious  possibilities  than  he  who 
lies  in  dreamless  sleep  before  us  today. 

Jeter  Conley  Pritchard  was  born  at 
Jonesboro,  Tennessee,  on  the  12th  day 
of  July,i857,and  died  at  Asheville,North 
Carolina,  on  the  loth  day  of  April,  1921, 
being  sixty-three  years,  nine  months,  and 
twenty-eight  days  old.  Under  the  un- 
fortunate conditions  immediately  follow- 
ing the  war,  his  opportunity  for  education 
was  so  scant  that,  despite  the  most  heroic 
determination  and  untiring  efforts,  he 
was  unable  to  get  more  than  a  few 
months'  schooling  in  the  public  schools  of 
East  Tennessee,  schools  not  then  of  a 
very  high  grade,  nor  calculated  to  inspire 
in  youth  those  lofty  ambitions  which 
afterwards  fired  the  soul  of  this  aspir- 
ing boy.  The  death  of  his  father,  a  gal- 
lant Confederate  soldier,  left  him  not 
only  to  care  for  himself,  but  to  be  the 


Page  Three 


chief  support  of  his  brothers  and  sisters 
and  helpless  mother.  It  is  here  that  we 
find  the  dawning  of  those  high  qualities 
of  manhood  which  afterwards  so  distin- 
guished Jeter  Conley  Pritchard  in  all  his 
public  and  private  relations,  namely, 
loyalty  and  devotion  to  those  who  had  a 
right  to  claim  his  love,  protection,  and 
support.  Never  once  did  he  fail  in  devo- 
tion to  his  mother.  She  was  the  object 
of  his  tender  care  every  day  of  her  Hfe. 
There  was  nothing  that  could  come  be- 
tween him  and  his  concern  for  her  wel- 
fare. It  has  been  thus  with  alll  the  great 
men  of  earth.  All  history  is  replete  with 
the  fact  that  love  of  father  and  mother, 
of  wife  and  children,  is  inseparable  from 
human  greatness.  The  gods  have  per- 
miteed  no  man  who  has  forgotten  the 
parents  of  his  being,  or  the  family  of  his 
bosom,  to  attain  greatness  among  men. 
To  forget  these  is  to  fix  an  impassable 
gulf  between  human  aspiration  and  hu- 
man attainment. 

The  time  alloted  by  this  occasion  does 
not  permit  further  details  as  to  the  early 
boyhood  of  Judge  Pritchard.  It  is  suf- 
ficient to  say  that  his  early  life-story,  like 
that  of  thousands  of  other  American 
boys  is  told  in  the  ''simple  annals  of  the 
poor.''  But  it  was  the  poverty  of  honor, 
of  manliness,  of  independence,  of  bold 
strife,  and  determination  to  lift  himself 
above  his  surroundings  and  see  the  day 

Page  Four 


when  he  could  look  back  with  a  smile 
upon  the  years  of  self-denial,  of  priva- 
tion, and  of  poverty  and  want,  and  such 
a  day,  in  God's  goodness,  he  was  permit- 
ted to  see. 

There  is  a  treble  relation  in  which  I 
would  speak  of  our  departed  friend.  He 
was  one  of  the  few  men  of  our  time,  or 
of  any  time,  who  could  be  pre-eminently 
great  in  the  three- fold  relation  of  public 
servant,  Christian  gentleman,  and  patri- 
otic citizen.  In  all  the  crowded  days  of 
his  life,  he  never  once  lost  the  poise  of 
this  finely  balanced  proportion.  Not  a 
few  of  our  great  men,  on  assuming  the 
chair  of  state,  or  the  seat  of  justice,  have 
forgotten  the  ties  of  the  Christian  and 
the  duties  of  the  patriot,  submerging 
everything  in  one  central  calling.  But 
not  so  with  him.  Whether  in  the  legisla- 
ture of  the  State,  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  on  the  District  Court 
bench,  or  on  the  bench  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  Appeals,  he  never  once  suffered 
a  lapse  of  his  dominant  idea  that  the 
public  service.  Christian  citizenship,  and 
patriotic  duty  were  an  inseparable  trio, 
and  that  remissness  in  one  was  unfaith- 
fulness to  the  others,  and  he  maintained 
that  sacred  balance  of  these  fundamental 
essentials  in  public  men  to  his  very  last 
days  on  earth.  Only  Ave  days  before 
his  death,  though  racked  with  suffering, 
he  was  still  mindful  of  his  duty  as  a 


Page  Five 


citizen,  and  directed  that  his  absentee 
ballot  be  cast  for  improved  public  school 
facilities  in  the  city  of  Asheville,  the 
cause  of  education  being  near  his  heart,  a 
cause  to  which  he  never  failed  to  rally 
with  enthusiasm. 

He  was  elected  as  a  Representative  in 
the  lower  house  of  the  General  Assembly 
of  Xorth  Carolina  from  Madison  County 
in  the  years  1884,  1886,  and  1890,  and 
served  with  the  highest  credit  to  himself, 
to  his  constituents,  and  to  the  whole 
State.  It  was  here  that  he  first  gave 
earnest  of  those  fine  talents  that  so  dis- 
tinguished him  in  after  life,  and  of  that 
earnest  devotion  to  duty  from  which  he 
never  once  departed  while  in  the  public 
service. 

Although  one  of  a  very  small  party 
minority  in  the  General  Assembly,  he 
made  himself  heard  and  felt  on  the  lead- 
ing questions  of  the  day,  such  as  honest 
elections,  improved  public  schools,  public 
roads,  the  equalization  of  taxation,  the 
care  of  ex-Confederate  soldiers,  appro- 
priations for  the  State  University,  and 
other  State  institutions,  taking  high 
ground  on  all  the  great  questions  of 
thirty  years  ago,  and  so  impressing  him- 
self upon  his  own  party  that  he  became 
its  unanimous  choice  for  United  States 
Senator  from  Xorth  Carolina.  Although 
defeated,  as  his  party  at  that  time  had 
but  a  few  votes,  yet  his  record  in  the  heg- 


Page  Six 


islature,  and  particularly  the  high  ground 
he  took  on  great  questions  affecting  the 
Hfe  of  the  State,  paved  the  way  for  his 
election  a  few  years  later  when  a  com- 
bination of  his  party  and  the  Populist 
party  in  the  State  was  effected. 

He  had  prior  to  this  time  been  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  of  the  State,  and  was  lay- 
ing the  foundations  of  that  large  prac- 
tice, and  taking  practical  lessons  in  that 
broad  course  of  legal  training,  which  so 
eminently  fitted  him  in  after  years  for 
the  high  judicial  stations  which  he  was 
called  to  fill.  In  the  old  nisi  prius  days, 
when  the  lawyers  of  the  State,  much 
more  than  now,  went  away  from  home 
and  traveled  over  the  circuit  with  the 
judges,  he  was  everywhere  a  favorite, 
particularly  in  the  counties  of  Western 
North  Carolina.  In  those  early  days,  he 
showed  those  splendid  and  determined 
fighting  qualities  which  brought  him  suc- 
cess in  almost  every  undertaking  of  his 
life. 

In  1892,  he  was  the  nominee  of  his 
party  for  Congress  from  the  Ninth  Dis- 
trict, now  the  Tenth,  against  the  late 
William  Tecumseh  Crawford,  by  whom 
he  was  defeated  by  a  small  majority, 
their  joint  canvass  of  the  District  attract- 
ing keen  attention  throughout  the  State 
and  bringing  both  of  the  champions  high- 
ly deserved  popularity.  In  1894,  he  was 
elected  by  the    General    Assembly  of 

Page  Seven 


North  Carolina  to  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate to  fill  the  unexpired  term  caused  by 
thedeath  of  Zebulon  Baird  Vance.  He 
was  again  re-elected  in  189.7,  serving  the 
full  term  expiring  March  4,  1903. 

Although  suddenly  called  to  this  re- 
sponsible trust,  and  naturally  inexperi- 
enced in  national  legislation,  he,  never- 
theless, immediately  took  high  rank  as  a 
Senator,  receiving  prominent  committee 
assignments,  speaking  frequently,  and 
advocating  those  liberal  and  beneficent 
policies,  both  domestic  and  foreign, 
which  gave  to  the  administration  of  Wil- 
liam McKinley  so  important  a  place  in 
American  history  and  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  particularly  in  the  settlement 
of  those  vast  and  complicated  questions 
growing  out  of  the  Spanish-American 
war,  resulting  in  the  banishment  of  the 
saffron  flag  of  Spain  from  the  Western 
hemisphere,  the  establishment  of  the 
Republic  of  Cuba,  and  the  acquisition  by 
the  United  States  of  a  vast  empire  on 
the  other  side  of  the  earth,  the  Philip- 
pine Islands,  bringing  ten  millions  of 
strange  people  under  the  aegis  of  our  flag 
and  making  them  wards  of  the  nation. 

I  have  recently  had  occasion  to  look 
into  some  of  the  votes  on  those  great 
questions  cast  by  Senator  Pritchard  dur- 
ing those  mighty  days,  and  it  is  gratifying 
to  know  that  upon  every  question  he  took 
the  lofty  ground  chosen  by  William  Mc- 

Page  Eight 


Kinley,  and  it  is  but  justice  to  President 
McKinley  and  Senator  Pritchard,  and 
highly  to  the  credit  of  both,  to  say  that 
it  was  under  the  guidance  of  the  noble 
McKinley,  that  Senator  Pritchard  took 
such  safe  and  high  ground  on  the  great 
domestic  and  international  questions  of 
the  day.  It  was  impossible  to  sit  at  the 
feet  of  William  McKinley  and  not  take 
lofty  moral  ground  on  any  public  ques- 
tion. His  fine  presence,  his  innate  good- 
ness, his  kindly  intonations,  his  ingratiat- 
ing manner — all  these  conspired  to 
move  in  others  the  highest  possible  de- 
termination to  rise  to  the  duty  of  every 
occasion,  and  it  was  under  this  fine 
tutelage  that  Senator  Pritchard  received 
his  first  lessons  in  statecraft,  and  from 
them  was  moved  to  such  eloquence  of 
speech,  such  lofty  devotion  to  duty;  and 
to  vote  so  soundly  on  matters  of  policy 
afifecting  our  own  country,  Cuba,  the 
Philippine  Islands,  and  our  other  newly 
acquired  possessions. 

A  distinguished  American  once  said 
that  he  had  journeyed  all  the  way  to 
London  to  see  the  illustrious  WilHam 
Ewart  Gladstone  in  his  prime;  that  he 
met  him ;  heard  him  speak  on  the  floor  of 
ParHament ;  beheld  him  as  Prime  Minis- 
ter; went  to  his  church,  and  heard  him 
teach  the  Bible  and  preach  a  lay  sermon ; 
was  a  guest  in  his  home,  and  saw  the 
dignity,  gentleness  and  sweetness  with 


Page  Nine 


which  he  presided  as  the  master  of  that 
earthly  sancturary,  and,  upon  his  return 
to  America,  this  distinguished  American 
felt  a  new  and  moving  inspiration  to 
noble  endeavor  which  never  afterward 
deserted  him,  and  he  declared  that  he 
owed  some  of  his  best  accomplishments 
of  his  life  to  this  single  inspiration. 
Such  was  the  influence  of  Gladstone 
over  men,  and  such  was  the  influence  of 
William  McKinley  over  ^Senator  Pritch- 
'  ard.  He  was  a  masterful  leader  of  men, 
and  no  aspiring  American  could  escape 
the  magnetic  influence  of  his  personal 
touch. 

Time  forbids  my  speaking  more  in  de- 
tail of  Judge  Pritchard's  career  as  a 
Senator  in  Congress.  It  is  a  record  of 
which  the  whole  country,  and  Nortli 
Carolina  in  particular,  may  well  be 
proud.  Not  a  vote  was  cast,  not  a  speech 
was  made,  not  a  policy  was  advocated, 
that  did  not  contemplate  the  very  best  in- 
terests of  our  beloved  country. 

In  1903,  President  Roosevelt  ap- 
pointed him  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  District  of  Columbia,  where,  un- 
der assignment  to  the  Criminal  court 
division,  he  bore  a  conspicuous  part  in 
the  adminstration  of  justice  in  that  high 
court,  winning  a  national  reputation  for 
his  finely  discriminating  and  well-bal- 
anced judgments,  his  clemency  where 
mercy  was  deserved,  and  the  severity 

Page  Ten 


with  which  he  punished  those  who  had 
knowingly  and  wilfully  violated  the  laws 
of  the  country.  So  brilliant  was  his  rec- 
ord on  the  bench  of  the  District  Court 
that  he  won  the  plaudits  of  both  bench 
and  bar,  as  well  as  the  high  commenda- 
tion of  President  Roosevelt. 

In  1904,  he  was  promoted  by  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  to  United  States  Circuit 
Judge  for  the  Fourth  Circuit,  where  he 
added  new  laurels  to  his  fame  as  a  judge, 
trying  every  possible  variety  of  cases, 
civil  and  criminal,  that  came  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Circuit  Court,  and  sit- 
ting on  the  bench  of  the  Circuit  Court  of 
Appeals  in  the  trial  of  cases  on  review, 
as  was  then  provided  by  law,  his  opin- 
ions taking  high  rank  for  their  legal 
soundness  and  the  finely  discriminating 
balance  with  which  he  held  the  scales  of 
justice. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1912, 
when  the  United  States  Circuit  Court 
ceased  by  law  to  exist,  he  became  the 
Presiding  Circuit  Judge  of  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  for  the 
Fourth  Circuit,  a  position  which  he  held 
with  the  very  highest  distinction,  and  to 
which  he  gave  the  most  painstaking  la- 
bor and  patient  industry,  writing  many  of 
the  opinions  of  the  Court,  all  of  which 
are  characterized  by  fine  practical  sense, 
a  sound  knowledge  of  the  law,  exhaustive 
inquiry,  and  a  deep  regard  for  all  the 


Page  Eleven 


rights  of  the  parties  in  interest. 

For  several  years,  I  have  read,  with  in- 
creasing interest,  his  opinions  on  questions 
relating  to  employers  and  employees, 
or  capital  and  labor.  Of  all  the  judges 
who  have  sat  in  this  high  Court,  and  they 
have  been  numerous  and  able,  I  do  not 
think  any  have  excelled  him  in  the  just 
and  equitable  balance  he  has  always 
struck  between  these  seemingly  conflict- 
ing interests.  In  him  the  employer  and 
the  capitalist  had  a  friend,  but  only  so 
far  as  they  used  their  power  and  their 
capital  within  the  law  and  enlightened 
conscience.  So  far,  they  were  perfectly 
safe,  but  beyond  this  they  dared  not  ven- 
ture. On  the  side  of  labor  he  never  once 
lost  that  human  touch,  that  sympathetic 
co-operation,  born  of  his  own  struggles 
as  a  hired  boy,  as  a  journeyman  printer, 
and  as  one  of  the  toiling  masses  of  men. 
Yet  his  sympathy  for  the  laborer,  or  for 
organized  labor,  never  once  led  him  to 
override  the  just  rights  of  capital  or  the 
true  interests  of  the  employer.  It  is 
here,  I  think  that  Judge  Pritchard's 
fame  as  a  jurist  will  chiefly  rest  in  the 
years  to  come.  A  careful  reading  of  his 
opinions  will  not  fail  to  rivet  upon  any 
lawyer  or  layman  the  conviction  that 
here  was  a  man  endowed  with  the  ability 
to  determine  justice  between  man  and 
man,  between  the  commonw^ealth  and 
citizen,  and  one  wdio  knew  and  dared 

Page  Tzvelve 


alike  the  rights  of  all  parties  to  the  con- 
troversy. 

So  eminently  fair  was  he,  so  thorough- 
ly  sympathetic  with  the  progressive 
movements  of  the  day,  particularly 
those  in  relation  to  capital  and  labor,  that 
he  was  often  called  upon  to  prosecute 
inquiries  and  make  findings  in  important 
matters  of  public  controversy,  the  most 
notable  of  which  was  the  arbitration  of 
the  controversy  between  the  Western 
railroad  companies  and  their  employees, 
where  he  sat  as  presiding  arbitrator  at 
Chicago  five  years  ago,  and  was  largely 
instrumental,  through  his  sound  knowl- 
edge of  economics,  his  fine  understand- 
ing of  the  human  questions  involved,  as 
Well  as  the  law  of  the  case,  in  settling  the 
dispute  to  the  satisfaction  of  both  par- 
ties, and  in  the  Reconciliation  of  the 
strained  and  divergent  relations  between 
employers  and  employees. 

Let  me  now  speak  a  word  about  the 
great  humanitarian  side  of  Judge  Pritch- 
ard's  nature.  In  all  my  acquaintance 
with  men,  I  have  known  none  who  had 
a  larger  heart,  more  generous  impulses, 
or  who  took  a  keener  interest  in  the 
well-being  of  others.  This  was  par- 
ticularly true  of  him  in  all  conditions  of 
distress  of  unfortunate  men  and  women. 
His  heart  was  ever  responsive  to  the 
appeal  for  charity,  to  the  craving  for 
education,  and  to  the  appeal  for  aid  to 


Page  Thirteen 


hospitals  and  other  institutions  for  those 
upon  whom  fortune  had  frowned.  All 
the  State  is  famiHar  with  his  efforts  in 
behalf  of  the  colored  race.  His  idea  of 
the  best  interests  of  the  colored  man 
was  that  he  should  eschew  politics; 
should  attend  to  his  domestic  affairs; 
should  devote  his  energies  and  talents 
to  the  building  of  churches,  schools  and 
homes;  that  he  should  become  better  in- 
formed that  he  might  be  more  useful  to 
the  community  and  to  himself.  Again 
and  again  did  he  go  North  to  solicit  aid 
for  the  colored  schools  of  the  State,  never 
charging  anything  for  his  services, 
usually  bringing  home  large  assistance 
to  those  needy  institutions,  greatly  to  the 
benefit  of  the  colored  youth  of  the  State, 
his  one  hope  being  that  they  might  be 
better  fitted  for  citizenship  and  for  earn- 
ing a  livelihood,  and  that  they  might 
learn  obedience  to  law  and  order. 

Never  did  he  rise  to  nobler  heights 
than  in  his  great  activities  in  behalf  of 
the  late  War.  His  sons  were  at  the 
front;  the  sons  of  his  neighbors  and 
friends  were  there;  and  his  own  great, 
yearning  heart  was  there.  He  left  his 
home,  at  a  time  when  he  was  physically 
weak  and  made  a  canvass  of  the  State  of 
Texas  in  the  interest  of  Liberty  Bond 
.  subscriptions,  a  task  that  taxed  his 
strength  to  the  utmost,  and  I  fear  had 
much   to   do   with   the   illness  which 

Page  Fourteen 


brought  him  to  his  untimely  end. 

His  interest  in  the  cause  of  education 
never  flagged.  No  preoccupation  or 
press  of  work,  except  official  duty,  could 
prevent  his  giving  aid  to  the  cause,  and 
particularly  to  the  public  and  primary 
schools  where  the  larger  interests  of  his 
heart  lay.  I  have  known  him  to  travel 
for  miles  to  address  an  obscure,  back- 
wood  school,  paying  his  own  expenses, 
with  no  hope  of  reward  but  the  con- 
sciousness that  he  had  done  something 
to  aid  some  boy  in  the  struggle  for  educa- 
tion, the  need  of  which  had  vexed  his 
own  boyhood  life,  and  prevented  him 
from  making  that  early  start  so  necessary 
for  the  success  of  one's  career,  whatever 
his  calling  may  be.  He  was  the  warm 
and  enthusiastic  friend  of  all  schools, 
teachers,  and  institutions  of  learning. 

It  was  in  the  interest  of  the  poor,  the 
oppressed,  and  the  submerged  that  his 
heart  swelled  the  largest.  1  have  known 
him  to  give  his  last  dollar  for  the  benefit 
of  persons  whose  names  will  never  be 
known,  a  service  that  could  bring  him  no 
return,  save  a  satisfied  longing  to  answer 
some  Macedonian  cry. 

At  one  of  my  calls  a  few  weeks  be- 
fore his  death,  his  first  inquiry  was  about 
two  poor  old  fellows,  both  of  them  down 
and  out,  who  are  to-day  living  on  charity 
in  the  city  of  Asheville,  and  he  anxiously 
wanted  to  know  how  they  were  being 

Page  Fifteen 


cared  for.  I  told  him  about  one  of  them, 
but  as  to  the  other  I  had  no  knowledge 
of  his  situation,  whereupon  he  had  me 
promise  that  I  would,  for  him,  give  aid 
to  the  poor  old  friendless  men,  who  in 
this  world  had  no  one  to  love  them,  and, 
save  such  as  Judge  Pritchard,  none  to 
care  for  them.  I  could  multiply  these 
instances  by  the  score.  Surely,  if  ever 
reward  was  laid  up  for  the  giver  who  let 
not  his  left  hand  know  what  his  right 
hand  did,  that  reward  is  reserved  for  the 
cherished  one  who  lies  before  us  to-day. 

His  nature  was  tender,  gentle,  sympa- 
thetic, and  affectionate.  His  heart  bled 
for  the  sufferings  of  others.  How  often 
have  I  heard  him  say,  "Oh,  if  I  had  the 
money,  that  should  be  different,  and  dif- 
ferent now.'' 

If  every  one  for  whom  he  did  a  kind- 
ness should  bring  here  a  flower,  the  very 
walls  of  this  sanctuary  would  overflow 
with  the  blossoms  of  spring;  if  everyone 
for  whom  his  heart  bled  should  shed  here 
a  tear,  an  overflowing  fountain  would 
submerge  this  presence;  if  all  his  prayers 
for  the  betterment  of  men  should  be  gatti«= 
ered  together,  the  air  would  resound  with 
one  continuing  chorus  of  supplication. 

But  our  friend  is  gone,  gone  from  us, 
gone  before  us.  Since  death  to  all  must 
com^e,  and  to  ?11  an  end  is  fixed,  let  us 
not  mourn  too  much  that  a  fellow-pilgrim 
is  called,  but  let  us  rather  strive  to  fill  the 

Page  Sixteen 


broken  ranks  and  do  the  work  he  did. 
Judge  Pritchard  was  preeminently  a  hu- 
man man.  And  it  was  his  work  with 
human  things  that  made  him  so  intensely 
human.  He  knew  what  it  was  to  till  the 
soil ;  to  want  the  things  men  need ;  to  toil 
at  the  printer's  desk ;  to  study  law  alone ; 
to  supplement  his  education  by  unaided 
study;  to  battle  against  fearful  odds, 
sometimes  with  indifferent  success;  thus 
he  was  hardened  in  the  reaHties  of  life, 
and  yet  he  was  mellow,  and  his  soul 
remained  unembittered. 

As  for  the  future  life,  we  know  not 
fully  what  it  is,  but  that  it  is,  we  know, 
and  that  it  will  be  ample,  we  doubt  not. 
Four  hundred  years  before  Christ,  Socra- 
tes, the  Greek,  a  pagan  philosopher,  in 
making  his  defense  before  the  Athenean 
dicastery,  on  trail  for  his  life,  and  real- 
izing the  hopelessness  of  his  cause,  gave 
utterance  to  this  obscure  prophecy, 
to  the  Christian,  utterly  comfortless,  to 
him,  the  only  comfort:  ''After  all,"  said 
he,  ''if,  as  some  men  say,  death  is  only 
an  eternal  sleep,  then  how  glorious  it 
will  be  to  be  free  from  the  distractions 
of  men  and  things ;  from  the  elements 
and  beasts,  from  taunts  and  worries; 
from  disease  and  death;  but  if  there  is 
a  world  different  from  this,  in  which 
men  may  be  happy  according  to  their 
deeds  in  the  flesh,  then  how  infinitely 
better  than  this,  for  there  we  know  we 


Page  Seventeen 


shall  meet  with  the  scholars,  the  philoso- 
phers, the  saints,  and  even  the  gods, 
who  have  promised  us  good  things,  the 
things  which  only  in  the  spirit  we  may 
know/' 

Eleven  hundred  years  before,  Job,  the 
man  of  Uz,  the  son  of  affliction,  a  patient 
and  suffering  Jew,  had  cried  out  in  his 
anguish,  ''If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live 
again?''  Fifteen  hundred  years  after 
Job's  exclamation  of  doubt,  and  four 
hundred  years  after  Socrates'  obscure 
vision,  the  Alan  of  Galilee  came,  and 
went,  and  rose  from  the  dead,  and  ascen- 
ded into  heaven,  since  when,through  him, 
there  is  no  doubt  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  no  haunting  fears  as  to  the 
possible  happy  end  of  man. 

Despairing  Villon  once  exclaimed, 
*'Where,  oh,  where  are  the  snows  of  yes- 
teryear? Gone,  gone  forever,  and  min- 
gled with  the  past."  But  the  snows  of 
yesteryear  are  not  gone ;  they  live  in  the 
rain,  in  the  fogs,  in  the  dews,  in  the 
water  of  stream  and  ocean,  in^  plant  and 
shrub,  in  flower,  and  tree.  They  are  the 
sources  of  new  growth  and  life.  And, 
in  like  manner,  the  deeds  of  good  men, 
though  they  take  other  forms,  are  not 
gone  forever ;  they  abide  somewhere,  aye, 
they  still  abide  where  men  may  feel  and 
know  their  blessed  influence.  So  the 
works  of  our  departed  friend  will  not 
perish  with    him ;  they  abide    with  us. 

Page  Eighteen 


When  the  sun  goes  down  beyond  the  hills, 
we  say  it  is  setting,  but  it  does  not  dis- 
appear. There  follow  it  great  streams 
of  light,  coruscations  of  glory,  and  long, 
long  after  the  great  luminary  is  lost  to 
view,  it  throws  back  its  effulgent  streams 
to  light  the  pilgrim's  way;  and  so  it  is 
with  the  influence  which  our  friend  has 
set  in  motion. 

To  those  who  mourn,  let  there  rise  in 
their  hearts  a  wellspring  of  hope;  to 
those  who  long  for  a  face  not  again  to 
be  seen,  let  their  souls  cease  to  yearn ;  to 
those  who  long  for  a  voice  no  more  to  be 
heard,  let  their  hearts  be  still.  Let  all 
who  reach  for  a  vanished  hand  take  com- 
fort. They  who  are  separated  shall 
meet  again.  Our  friend  is  not  dead;  he 
is  only  away.  In  another  and  nobler  ex- 
istence he  is  estabHshed.  For  him,  the  * 
day  is  done,  but  it  is  written  that  ''J^Y 
Cometh  in  the  morning."  But 

''There  is  no  night ;  the  stars  go  down 
To  rise  upon  some  far-off  shore. 

And  bright  in  heaven's  jeweled  crown 
They  shine  forevermore." 


f  V        :rl  PROJECT 


Page  Nineteen 


